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The Tennessee Titans and Derrick Henry came into the playoffs at 9-7. Due to that (and a few other reasons) they were seen as the weak link of the playoffs. Yet, they will play the Kansas City Chiefs for the right to play in the Super Bowl.
However, Tennessee and Derrick Henry quickly silenced doubters by beating the defending Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. They did that in the Wild Card round. The next week, they had an even tougher challenge in the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore went 14-2 in the regular season, the best record in the NFL. Tennessee beat them as well.
They've done all this on the legs of Derrick Henry. The running back has 377 rushing yards in those two playoff games. He's simply dominated. Now the Titans have the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game. If they win, they move on to the Super Bowl. Can Henry keep chugging along to help them win?
Here are three bold predictions for Derrick Henry against the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game.
Over 175 Rushing Yards
175 rushing yards sounds like an impossible task to most men. Derrick Henry is no normal man though. In fact, is he even human? Henry has had over 175 rushing yards in each of his two playoff games. He had over 200 rushing yards in the last game of the regular season as well.
In the Titans last three games, Henry has 588 rushing yards. Seriously, 588. That's 196 rushing yards per game. I'm guessing Henry will have at least 175, that's 21 less than he's averaging in the last three games. It's also 13 yards less than the 188 rushing yards Henry had against the Chiefs in their regular season contest.
So yes, 175 yards is a bold prediction. You can't expect someone to keep up the pace Derrick Henry is going at. At the same time though, would it really surprise you if he reached that mark again?
More Rushing Yards than Passing Yards
This has also happened in each of the last three games. Derrick Henry has had more rushing yards than quarterback Ryan Tannehill has had passing yards. In fact, the playoffs have gotten crazy with this. You could combine Tannehill's two playoff games and he doesn't have as many yards as Henry had in either one of his games SOLO. That's nuts.
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Tannehill has had 72 passing yards and 88 passing yards. He's not exactly breaking the box scores with those numbers. However, the Titans will likely be in more of a shootout in the AFC Championship game. It's hard to imagine the defense completely locking down Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City offense.
If the Chiefs start to score, the Titans will need to throw the ball more. So this could make the race much closer. That being said, there's a strong chance the Chiefs can't stop Derrick Henry. So even if they are scoring, the Titans might decide to just run with Henry a ton anyways. Once again he has more rushing yards than Tannehill has passing yards.
Runs Over Frank Clark
I could've talked about touchdowns here. Or receptions. Maybe even that Derrick Henry simply helps the team win and advance to the Super Bowl in one of the great underdog playoff runs in the history of the NFL. That's not the case here though. Frank Clark made those comments, so this had to go in.
Clark is a defensive lineman for the Chiefs. He talked about how Derrick Henry isn't that hard to tackle in his opinion. You know what that means, right? The Henry train is coming and Clark better get off the tracks.
Derrick Henry doesn't seem to like talking too much. He'd rather just flatten you on the field and let that do the talking for him. Clark might get a taste of that in the AFC Championship Game.
Remember when Earl Thomas of the Ravens mocked the Patriots? Saying they didn't seem “interested in tackling Henry.” It was more of a jab at New England. However, you could argue he was also insinuating that Henry isn't that difficult to tackle if you just try. Then Derrick Henry stiff armed Thomas so hard it looked like Thomas was his lead blocker on a play.
Clark might have a similar fate coming to him. With Twitter getting off their thousands of jokes to a viral video of Henry absolutely sonning him.
